North American Network Operators Group Date Prev | Date Next | Date Index | Thread Index | Author Index | Historical Re: Interpersonal skills needed for Network Engineers
On Sat, 16 Feb 2008, Kim Onnel wrote: I am looking for defining what are skills needed in people that will work in an ISP's operational/NOC environment as Network Engineers. I think you're talking very generally about the 'cowboy' type of operators who will reboot first, and then troubleshoot if that doesn't fix it. There are also the territorial types who feel threatened in the face of outside ideas or questions. Speaking as a volatile loudmouth (in recovery), I do think that interpersonal skill training, or at least practice, is useful for folks to be able to inter-operate both with other people, and other network operators. The single most useful troubleshooting skill anyone can bring to the table is a good pair of ears and a willingness to use them. With that as a base, you can move on to good teamwork and best practices. As cliche as it may seem, I readily recommend 'Negotiating for Dummies' as reading for anyone who doesn't want to be the person that no one can work with. It works great when given as an anonymous gift, too. - billn
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